I'm still knocking on wood, but my TiVo HD and cablecard are still working 100&#37; well. Watched some comedies on CBS tonight and paused to finish up dinner. Came back and skipped all the commercials.

I was pleased that this weekend, Comcast installed an M-Card in my TiVo HD. It took 45 minutes since the cable installer unplugged the coax cable from my TiVo to check the signal strength/integrity/etc and forgot to plug it back into the TiVo.

It does seem Comcast has slowed their original SDV plans and is now pursuing analog reclamation as a way to increase digital channels provided in various markets.

SDV had been planned to be deployed to about 15% of their markets by the end of 2008. Analog reclamation and going all digital was planned for about 20% of their markets by the end of 2008. I'm not sure what the actual numbers ended up being, though.

It does seem Comcast has slowed their original SDV plans and is now pursuing analog reclamation as a way to increase digital channels provided in various markets.

SDV had been planned to be deployed to about 15% of their markets by the end of 2008. Analog reclamation and going all digital was planned for about 20% of their markets by the end of 2008. I'm not sure what the actual numbers ended up being, though.

I thiink you are mistaken. My Comcast rate card includes fine print that says the local HD stations are included in basic. And that is in fact what I receive. I received the local HD stations before I upgraded my service to full digital. My other Tivo without cablecards also receives the clear QAM local HD stations (without Tivo guide service).

What clear QAM stations are you worried about losing? If they are local HD stations, you shouldn't lose them. If they are other cable networks like ESPN, Discovery, CNN, etc., there is a chance they would be blocked by not being included in the channel map downloaded to the card. However, if they are in the channel map, you should continue to receive them.

On my system, all channels appear to be in the channel map I recieve. However, my cards are not authorized to decrypt all channels. I would be very surprised if you lose any clear QAM channels with the addition of cablecards.

YMMV

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The day before the CC was scheduled, the Comcast tech called to warn me that that I would actually be losing channels because the "clear QAM" channels are not in the basic package. Either he right or he was being lazy.
I'm just asking if anybody here is able to get digital channel through the Tivo channel guide and how they did it.

We picked up an M-card at our local (north Seattle) Comcast office and installed it just fine. Just a call in to Comcast to pair it and we were good to go.

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Wow, either you were lucky or the Aurora Comcast office has finally learned a few tricks. I tried the CableCard thing nine months ago. We had to pay a roll fee, a guy came out, fumbled on the phone and with the card for forty-five minutes, then had to leave on another call. Never did get HD schedule info. I returned the card -- and Comcast refused to refund the roll fee.

On the Comcast website there's a lineup page that shows what's included in each tier. Have you looked there?

Before I had the CCs I could tune the ClearQAM channels but the TiVo guide didn't know how to map the lineup to them.

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Unfortunately, not all Comcast areas break down the channel lineup by tier. My area simply shows "all channels" and it isn't even up-to-date. If I go look at the TV schedule on Comcast, I can find the correct channels for my area, but the lineup for my area is still several months behind.

I just got installed from Comcast in Nashville and had a pretty good experience. I dropped AT&T DSL/phone and picked up Comcast digital starter/phone/internet. Everything works but when the installer was talking with the Comcast dispatcher, he was told that M-cards are problematic and my channels "WILL" drop after a few days. They said I should return the M-card when this happens and pick up 2 S-cards at the Comcast office.

I just got installed from Comcast in Nashville and had a pretty good experience. I dropped AT&T DSL/phone and picked up Comcast digital starter/phone/internet. Everything works but when the installer was talking with the Comcast dispatcher, he was told that M-cards are problematic and my channels "WILL" drop after a few days. They said I should return the M-card when this happens and pick up 2 S-cards at the Comcast office.

Have any of you heard of this problem?

Thanks,
JAB

edit: this is a tivo HD DVR

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The dispatcher is another clueless person. If your channels drop out, the mostly like cause will be them not having configured the cards with correct billing codes on your account. Just call back and speak to someone with a clue if it should happen, or email ComcastCares (just search on the forum for all the contact info) and let the corporate office pass your problem down to a technician with a clue for you.

Like I said in previous posts - the Tech talks to people the end user
can not access. The results are USUALLY always better

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The problem that my grandmother was having getting her mcard installed and all channels tuning was solved Tuesday with the tech showing up stating "I dont konw anything about these Tivo Cards(!)" but calling in and speaking to someone for all of maybe two minutes.

I know what you say is true, just wish we did have access to these people who are needed to fix cablecard issues without numerous calls and multiple appts. Until using the "Email Rick" route, we were told by every phone CSR that "you're not supposed to get those channels."